Desmatosuchus (Planet Wow by Blue Ocean)

As announced, I’m reviewing more prehistoric crocodiles from Planet Wow, a brand of the publisher Blue Ocean, about which I’ve already written everything necessary in this review of Simosuchus: https://dinotoyblog.com/simosuchus-planet-wow-by-blue-ocean .

Interestingly, Desmatosuchus, although released in the line, isn’t actually a real crocodile at all, but an aetosaur. Those, according to Wikipedia, were medium- to large-sized omnivorous or herbivorous pseudosuchians, part of the branch of archosaurs more closely related to crocodilians than to birds and non-avian dinosaurs. I’ve also classified it as a crocodile here, for simplicity’s sake. Aetosaurs lived in the Triassic and can serve as index fossils, since they had wide geographic ranges, but their stratigraphic ranges were relatively short. Desmatosuchus itself has been found in North America and potentially in India, too.

The figure reviewed today is 15,5 cm long and stands in upright pose with dragged tail 4 cm tall at its hips. It is made of the typical wobbly, probably non-toxic rubber that Planet Wow uses. It’s amazing that the figure holds its upright pose with this material without having to lean on another figure on the shelf like a drunk. Honestly, I find the coloring pretty boring. You can tell from the pictures that it’s a weird yellow interrupted by greenish stripes and speckles. The large spikes on the shoulder and the row of smaller spikes running along the side are painted white, but only on the inside and very hastily and superficially. Surprisingly, the open mouth contains modeled teeth and is painted pink, while the eyes are only hinted at with sloppy dots. I held the figure under very warm water, but it didn’t change its color afterward. It also doesn’t glow in the dark, as the color of its material might suggest.

The namesake eagle-head shape of the head is actually not too badly executed. Yet, compared to the Simosuchus, this figure, although in my opinion it represents the more interesting animal, performs significantly worse. But as I said in my Simosuchus review, these figures in this series are meant to spark kids’ curiosity, collecting, and comparing, and are more to be seen as an “entry-level medium” to prehistory rather than serious figures for adult collectors. Of course, completists are still welcome to grab them, especially since aetosaurs don’t show up all that often as toys or model figures.

The structures and the skin on different parts of the body aren’t badly done at all. Is the figure a perfect representation? No. Something like that is not possible with this soft material at all. For example, a look at the feet shows that you can’t go into full detail with this type of rubber. Should we appreciate the approach and effort nevertheless? Definitely!

I found a few on amazon Germany, but Blue Ocean does not ship overseas. Hopefully, a structure will be found soon that allows these interesting little monsters to be purchased overseas as well.